Ingrid Schloss

Ingrid is a clinical dietitian with a very wide experience spanning over more than two decades. She works primarily in the new Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital where she and her colleague, Cecily Fuller see all the in-patients whether they are requiring nutritional support in the Intensive Care Unit; recovering from gut disease or surgery; struggling to maintain an appropriate nutritional intake or needing to meet the challenges of renal failure, HIV, heart disease, wound healing, diabetes, weight management or having a transplanted organ. She and Cecily have extended their practice to the Cape Town Medi-clinic where Ingrid’s passion for Gastrointestinal Disease and surgery is evidenced by the work she does daily in this area. Out-patients, in all of the above areas of nutrition and including various levels of disordered eating are also serviced by Cecily and Ingrid which includes following up patients who have been discharged from the hospital or independently from it.

Together with her particular passion for support in the critically ill patients, Ingrid has worked concurrently over the last 11 years in the specialised field of haematological cancers at the Constantiaberg Medi-clinic. Here, together with her colleague, Deidre Lindeque, she supports all patients with leukemias, lymphomas, myelomas etc especially those needing to undergo the very challenging path of having a bone marrow transplant with all the nutritional complications that are associated with this.

Ingrid is a clinical dietitian, registered with the Health Professionals Council, with an undergraduate science degree in Microbiology and Biochemistry and a postgraduate Medical Honours degree in Nutrition and Dietetics. She qualified from the University of Cape Town in 1993, following which she spent the next few years working in the United Kingdom as a clinical dietitian in numerous hospitals. During this time she obtained wide experience in various clinical specialities and at the time of leaving was a Senior 1 Clinical Dietitian in Gastroenterology.

Shortly after her return to South Africa she joined the University of Cape Town as a full time lecturer in the Division of Nutrition and Dietetics in the Department of Medicine. Her academic career spanned 10 years in the Department where she co-ordinated the clinical postgraduate training programme and was Acting Head of the Department for the last 2 years prior to her departure into Private Practice. During her time as a Lecturer and Acting Head she was responsible for co-ordinating the entire dietetic programme; she supervised approximately 39 Honours projects; co-supervised 5 Masters projects; has 9 publications including 2 in international peer reviewed journals as well as a chapter in a textbook; has presented at 9 conferences including 2 international conferences; co-authored posters in an additional 9 conferences, 4 of which were international; Co-Director / researcher for National Baseline Fortification Study and multi-Centred Colonic Cancer intervention trial; raising research and sponsored funds to the region of R900 000.

Ingrid now runs a successful Clinical Dietetic practice, for the last 12 years, from Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital in Cape Town as well as consulting for the Cape Town Mediclinic and the Haematology and Bone Marrow Unit at Constantiaberg Mediclinic. Her main area of interest/expertise lies in the Critically ill/ICU patients; all Gastrointestinal surgery and disordered patients as well as Haematological and general oncology patients. Her part-time outpatient dietetic practice sees clients for general lifestyle nutritional support, but mainly patients with Gastrointestinal disorders and disordered eating where she uses a holistic approach to manage nutritional challenges.

Given the extent of her client base, Ingrid works with 2 other individuals in her practice:

Cecily Fuller works with Ingrid at Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital where she sees mainly in and outpatient lifestyle related conditions like weight reducing, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia and non-acute heart and kidney transplants.

Deidre Lindeque assists Ingrid with her Haematological and Bone Marrow transplant patients and assists with general cover in the acute setting.

On a more personal note…
Ingrid is very dedicated to her work and patients but in her spare time she seeks peace and quiet with regular meditation, hiking in nature, and enjoys spending holidays in the bush taking photos of wildlife.

Ingrid draws on many years of international and local experience as well as 10 years in academia. As a result, Ingrid is interested in progressive, evidence-based, best practice clinical dietetics with an individualised and caring approach.

Her deep respect for individual life- philosophies contributes to her belief that nutrition plays a pivotal role that varies with each person’s specific needs. Ingrid hopes that by sharing this, she may be able to empower recipients to make informed choices about managing their lifestyle appropriately in order to achieve optimal health.

She has also had the privilege of working together with many other practitioners in the facilities in a comprehensive and multidisciplinary way which supports her philosophy that approaching the system as a whole, from various aspects, provides a more complete healing experience.